When Apple rolled out iOS 4.3 a couple weeks ago, it quietly added a few features to the widely reviled Ping social-network service: push notifications for comments and follow requests, parental controls, and so on.

Fortunately, as reported at Pocket-lint and elsewhere, there's a simple fix for the problem: turn off Ping. Here's how:

Tap the Settings icon.

Tap General, then Restrictions.

Tap Enable Restrictions.

Enter a four-digit passcode, which is required to enable restrictions (and to access it later). Make sure it's something you can remember! (Write it down if you can't.)

Set Ping to Off.

That's all there is to it. If you check the reader comments at sites like the aforementioned Pocket-lint and Lifehacker, you'll see that at least some users have reported much-improved battery life after making the change.